Mission Bay – Past, Present and Future

What is the attraction of abandoned urban places? Is it the feeling of something forgotten, a type of abstract, collective nostalgia? Maybe these places provide relief from engineered cityscapes, decaying into something unplanned and wild. Or maybe they’re just weedy and oil-stained eyesores.

For years, old Chronicle stories couldn’t find words beyond “industrial wasteland” to describe the 300 hundred acres of lonely rail yard that since the 1970s has been a good spot for hitting a few golf balls or parking a houseboat or decrepit Winnebago.

The houseboats remain, as does some of the wasteland gestalt, but now every square foot is zoned and planned. Some blocks are crystallizing into shining, glassy biotech, tidy landscaping, condos, and parks. Thousands of adults and hundreds of children have moved in. The commercial and social hub of the neighborhood, Fourth Street, will open early next year.

And those other blocks, the central bulk of the neighborhood? They’re still indefinitely dormant, victim to yet another recession, and there’s no telling when it will be filled. Maybe soon, maybe not. Read more here.